We are interconnected through a shared global culture, most easily demonstrated by how children interact with the world, their parents, us.
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Most of us are familiar with Ryan Kaji and his eponymous show “Ryan’s World.” Ryan is a widely recognized YouTube brand with his own line of toys. But have you heard of Nastya, the Russian YouTube sensation? She’s six-years-old, cute as a button, garners 100 million views daily, and raked in $18 million last year. Kid influencers have gone global and it makes no difference where you are from as long as you have the “It” factor and Nastya has “It.”
“Like Nastya” is one of the first kid influencer YouTube shows to broadcast beyond her native language. Her Russian language show is now offered in English, Korean and Indonesian. According to a Bloomberg article, “How a 6-Year-Old Russian Girl Became YouTube’s Most Popular Child Star,” it all started with a video depicting Nastya as a police officer.
Since December, when the video first appeared on her “Like Nastya” YouTube channel in Radzinskaya’s native Russian, the kid cop routine has generated more than 90 million views. Another version of the video, re-edited for English-speaking viewers, has since tallied up another 7 million views. Two additional versions, dubbed in Indonesian and Korean, have generated more than 2 million views since February. Spanish and Arabic versions will be posted soon.
The popularity of Nastya demonstrates how global our culture has become. Watch Nastya and you feel like you are watching something that originated in Los Angeles or St. Louis.
Some worry that the global economy is in trouble and that we are going to go back to the days of tariffs and protected economies. Our world is, however, far more than that. We are interconnected through a shared global culture, most easily demonstrated by how children interact with the world, their parents, each other and us.
Best of luck to you Nastya and other little girls and boys all over the world who are bringing us together. It’s a good thing.
